If you browse the internet for reviews of the latest instalment of Telltale's The Walking Dead you'll notice that they are not overly positive. This surprised me as despite the episode's slow paced intro I felt like episode three went above and beyond what the first two offered. The episode had telltale's signature emotional punch in spades however it still managed to get hearts racing with an adrenaline fuelled (and gory) showdown with some New Frontier bandits.
One thing that did disappoint me was how long it took for Clementine to show up. I understand Telltale wanted to implement a whole new cast of characters for this season but Clementine has very much become the face of The Walking Dead games. Players care about her, a lot, this was shown when around 90% of people (in the PS4 version) decided to shoot Conrad when he threatened her. However, what little Clementine we had was perfectly executed. The flashback, which offered an explanation as to why Clem left the New Frontier was heartbreaking to say the least. It also offered another one of the episodes many twists. Before the episode I had a negative view on Javier's brother David but during their talk I decided that maybe he wasn't so bad after all. The flashback then made my hatred for him go through the roof ,which made deciding whether to spit in his face or say goodbye to AJ one of the toughest choices in the episode (I eventually settled for the latter).
One problem I had with this episode is that I felt that too many characters where introduced at once. When it was revealed that Joan was the one giving secret orders to the bandits I had to pause for a minute and think "who the hell is Joan?" I'm sure many people saw the twist coming, after all thinking back Joan did seem a little overly nice. I mean who bakes a cake in the apocalypse? Telltale wanted us to feel guilty about our mean interactions with David however I still suspect he is more involved than he lets on.
One new character I liked was Ava. I felt she was reminiscent of Jane from season 2 - she was mysterious, stoic and most importantly badass. Despite his obvious flaws I also like Tripp (not only because he is sort of like a Kenny 2.0) but due to the fact that in the Telltale games character spectrum of saint to I want to murder you right now, Tripp sits comfortably in the middle. The departure of Jesus disappointed me. However, I'm glad I don't have to endure his cruxifiction of me (get it because he's called Jesus) everytime I don't put other people in front of myself. Kate and Gabe are in a grey area in the sense that I don't care that much about them yet. Kate gets annoyed at you if you don't do things her way and Gabe refuses to use any common sense at all times.
Despite my disdain for some characters I have to hand it to Telltale as their character development and script is flawless as always. Be sure to expect those loading screens and some dropped frame rates when playing Episode 3 (after all it's not a Telltale game without glitches) but don't let is stop you from enjoying the wonderful world Telltale has created. Enjoy this more relaxed episode as I have a feeling we are hurtling towards a no holds barred finale.
My Rating - 8.5/10
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